


Driving in the Espresso Lane

by soft_lester



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mario Kart, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 12:52:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14811728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soft_lester/pseuds/soft_lester
Summary: Phil accidentally had too much caffeine, so he and Dan stay up playing Mario Kart.





	Driving in the Espresso Lane

**Author's Note:**

> the title is a pun on the term "express lane," which is the fast lane on freeways

Phil didn’t realize how much caffeine he had ingested that evening until it was too late. Not until Dan had walked in on him gnawing on an espresso bean. By that point he had lost count of how many he had eaten. He intended to eat one and stop himself after that, but once he started eating them he couldn’t control himself. One became two, two became three, and so on until he no longer tried to keep count.

“ _Phil_ ,” Dan whined, “how did you not realize…”

Phil gave a nonchalant shrug in response. He did not feel too deeply concerned with the consequences of his actions. Dan rolled his eyes, but Phil could tell that this situation was not a shock to Dan at all. Only Phil would do something like this.

“Oh well, it looks like you won’t be sleeping tonight, then,” Dan remarked. “Will tonight be yet _another_ sleepless night with Phil?” Phil recognized the glow in Dan’s eyes. It was a familiar and playful glow, one that Phil welcomed as his heart thudded against his chest. He couldn’t tell if his heart was beating because of the look Dan was giving him or because the caffeine was beginning to affect him.

“No,” Phil answered in the same light tone Dan used, “I’d rather spend this night alone with you. I’m sure there will be other sleepless nights I can film alone.”

“Well, if you insist,” Dan said, pretending to protest for a moment before he headed to the couch where Phil sat, his eyes still glowing with an eagerness to cuddle his boyfriend. He settled down beside Phil and Phil’s smile grew even wider. Dan radiated warmth and comfort. Under normal circumstances, this warmth would lure Phil into sleepiness, but the espresso beans churning through his system kept him locked in wide consciousness.

Then Dan leaned in closer to Phil and nuzzled his head into Phil’s shoulder, which made Phil even warmer. The feeling of Dan’s skin through the soft material of his shirt brought a goofy, wide smile to Phil’s face. That exuberant smile with his tongue popping out between his teeth. The one where Phil felt nothing but absolute contentment.

“Since I’m so awake right now, why don’t we play Mario Kart?” Phil suggested. It was 10 o’clock, so if they played online they were bound to race against a variety of people from across the world. Something about that appealed to Phil.

Dan lifted his head off Phil’s shoulder and he adjusted it so he could look directly into Phil’s eyes now. “Why the hell not?” He jumped off the couch up to turn on the TV and pick up the controllers next to it.

Controllers in his hands, Dan turned back around to Phil and said, “So we’re not going to attack each other this time, right?”

“Only if you want to,” Phil said and Dan groaned. “Fine, fine, I won’t hit you,” he added as Dan strode back to the couch.

“Just get the game started,” Dan sighed, walking back to the couch and shoving one of the controllers into Phil’s lap. They exchanged a short glance and shared a smile as they situated themselves on the couch.

Together they maneuvered through the game menu quickly. And then they had to pick their characters and cars. Dan decided to play as his Mii—his obnoxious, smirking Mii, the one that screamed, “I love to win”—and Phil stuck to Tanooki Mario, his favorite character in the game and the one he enjoyed playing as the most.

By some stroke of luck, the first course that the game selected for Dan and Phil and everyone they were playing against online to race in was Cloudtop Cruise—Phil’s favorite.

“Lucky you,” Dan said, nudging Phil. “I hope you win this one,” he added in a softer voice.

Phil glared at Dan out of the corner of his eye. “Is that a challenge? What about the no attack pact?”

Dan raised his eyebrows.

“Well?”

“I’m not saying anything,” Dan remarked, shrugging as he leaned away from Phil a little bit. It would have been barely noticeable at all if Dan weren’t taking his warmth away with him. Phil noticed the temperature drop a little—just a little, though; it was only enough for Phil to notice because he had become so accustomed to leaning against Dan—and he couldn’t help but feel a pang of yearning for his boyfriend’s warmth again.

They played through the entire level in a matter of minutes, with Phil narrowly claiming first place and Dan behind in second.

Once the race was over, they watched the screen intently as the game decided what course they would race on next. It ended up selecting Animal Crossing.

“What season do you think it’ll be?” Phil asked, looking into Dan’s enticing dark brown eyes. Phil had to look away after a second because he knew he would get lost in those eyes. Those beautiful, beautiful eyes. He always did.

“Autumn,” Dan said. “You?”

“Spring.”

They both turned out to be wrong: the game ended up selecting winter as the track’s season.

Three laps of the wintry track passed by in a blur, with Dan in first place this time and Phil trailing behind in second. Phil did not put up much of a fight to beat Dan, but he did rub it in Dan’s face when his red shell hit him halfway through the second lap and, later, when two blue shells attacked him and tried to usurp him from his position in first place. But Dan managed to stand his ground all the way to the end of the race.

As Dan filled the post-race screen with cries of “Hooray” and “Good game,” Phil smiled. He watched his boyfriend’s enthusiasm through enamored eyes, glad to see Dan so invested in this game and happy to be spending time with him.

***

Phil lost track of how many races they had played before Dan fell asleep in between games. He had hardly noticed that Dan drifted off until he caught a glimpse of Dan’s half of the screen and saw that Dan’s car drove off the edge of the track in the middle of a race. Once the fluffy cloud returned Dan’s characte to the race, he wasn’t moving or doing much of anything at all, for that matter. Not wanting to quit out of the game mid-race, Phil let Dan fall back to last place while Phil ended the race in first place. He wouldn’t tell Dan about that one.

When the race was over, Phil looked over and saw that his boyfriend had fallen asleep with his head on Phil’s shoulder, Phil couldn’t help but grin a wide, content grin. Dan looked so peaceful in his sleep, like he was off and away in his own little world, blissfully unaware of his actual surroundings. Sometimes Phil couldn’t stop himself from admiring the innocent, beautiful curves of his face while he dozed away.

On the other hand, Phil was still wide awake, the effects of his excessive caffeine intake still pulsing through his whole body. He felt tempted to carry Dan to their bed—how romantic would that be?—but he knew with his clumsy nature it would only end in disaster, so he decided he would let Dan sleep on the couch that night. Phil inched off the couch in slow movements as he tried to ease Dan down and lay his entire body stretched across the couch. He moved slowly enough to make sure he didn’t yank Dan around and wake him up—or worse, hurt him by accident.

Once Dan was laying down, stretched out as much as the length of the couch would allow, Phil couldn’t help but admire the view of Dan sleeping yet again. Dan looked so beautiful with his long legs stretched out and his arms tucked in close to his chest as if to instinctually retain his warmth. And then Phil realized that the television was still on, the flashy colors of Mario Kart still shining on the large screen. Phil tried to turn off the console and the TV as quietly as he could and then he left the room, prepared to find entertainment elsewhere in the apartment until he grew tired enough to sleep.

Phil didn’t remember what time he drifted off into sleep that night—though he remembered it was very, _very_ late—but he slept soundly with the image of Dan peacefully sleeping on the couch imprinted in his mind.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! follow me on twitter @philspuns!


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